Help with long night exposures

[BMWJNKY]

I took this photo on a recent trip down to Mammoth, CA, Hot Creek Ranch to be exact. If it wasn't for all the noise I'd be happy with it. What can I do to minimize the noise in the future so I don't loose any shots to it in the future.

40min exposure, Canon 20D, efs18-55, iso @100, apature set to about 9, no noise reduction turned on in the camera (should probably have had it on )

[fx101]

For long exposures, the in camera NR (some have a long exposure noise reduction function) can help, but I think you get better results with post-processing using software like Noise Ninja.

[mjs1973]

For some of my long exposure star trail photos, I use several shorter exposures and merge them together using layers in Photoshop. If use this method, you can't use the in camera noise reduction because it will result in gaps in your exposure. It's very easy to merge them. Simply drag one photo to the other holding down the shift key, then change the blending mode to Lighten.

Here is an example of one of my merged images.

Enee Point

[Greg McCary]

I have heard really good things about this software. I think you can get a free trial. Just let us know how you like it.

http://www.astrostack.com/

[Kajuah]

I haven't heard of that method, what I use is Noise Ninja for photoshop cs3. It's a great plugin you can buy or download online (whichever your fancy).

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

I agree with what mike said - do multiple shorter exposures - 15-30 secs without the in camera noise reduction. Then stack them.

I haven't heard of the software greg mentioned but I was turned on to "registax" and its free....

registax

[BMWJNKY]

I'll figure out how to blend layers and try that next time. Thanks for all the input everyone.